Of The Five Elements
by Artehc8
Summary: A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step. Peace is almost impossible to achieve in the ninja world. However, it soon will change if everyone starts taking part in that journey. One step at a time.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: Naruto is under the ownership of Kishimoto-sensei.

"How's it going, bros" - speech

 _"My name is ..." - thought_

 **"Pewdie- *cough* never mind" - Justu**

Chapter 1

* * *

"Captain, we found something!" A ninja relayed his discovery to his squad leader. That was actually a secret way led to the underground floor, located at a small hillside. There was a large stone double door about seven feet high, and a big snake head statue right on top of it. It had a spooky and foul aura surrounding the area as if there were some kind of monstrous activities going on inside the mysterious place.

A four-member squad of Konoha ANBU was carrying out their mission on the border of Earth country. The Third Hokage ordered them to investigate a suspecting location of an S-class criminal, Orochimaru of the legendary three ninja. Orochimaru had been secretly building several hideouts for his despicable experiments throughout the elemental nations. Adding onto the news of a rising Sound village, the old man was increasingly suspicious that his former student was behind all these.

The captain turned his head towards his squad's direction. _So much for wanting to hide his own presence-_ the captain mused at their target's choice of hiding place. With a wave of his hand as a signal to move, he and his remaining squad members leapt to the place. The group of four masked ninja immediately felt unease when they stood in front of the door. Their instincts were shouting at them to just run and get away from the place. Normally they were used to various kinds of weird situations and dangerous missions, but what this place was emitting was a different story.

The leader walked closer and investigated the double door for a while before ordering one of his subordinates to destroy it. "Cat, get rid of the door." He received a nod before letting her did the job.

With two slashes of a sword enhanced by chakra, the door split into pieces before falling to the ground. The leader signaled two more of his members to enter the secret way inside. However, the moment they took a step past the entrance, a series of kunai were suddenly hurling towards the two ANBU agents from both sides of the walls flanking the passage, forcing them to jump away to escape from the onslaught.

"It seems that this place is tightly trapped. There must be people inside there recently. Proceed with caution as we don't know what else are awaiting us, assuming they know we are here already." said the leader. He looked at the dark passage critically, thinking about how to go in safely. "Rat, send your clones in there and trigger as much traps as you can."

"Yes, sir." with a single hand seal, Rat created several shadow clones and sent them in there one by one, walking in a straight line. A few minutes later, after all those clones got destroyed by various kinds of traps, he flinched slightly as he scanned through all the information he got from his clones. They died a horrible death. "All clear, sir. There is a three-way intersection up ahead though."

The captain, wearing a dog mask, nodded. "Alright, we have to split up into pairs. I and Cat will take left and you two will go right. If you find any enemies, eliminate them. However, do not cause too much destruction because we are operating in our enemies' territory. We do not want them to find out that Konoha ANBUs are here. We have only a couple hours to search and leave at night. So, find everything in there and report later. Hopefully we can catch something linked to our target's whereabouts." He paused to let the order sink in. "This entrance will be our rendezvous point. Scatter!"

With that, the two pairs began their plan and went their separate ways. Along the passage, there were torches hanging on the flanking walls, one every twenty meters, dimming the way. This didn't make the journey in there any easier. They all had to be on an alert of possible dangers.

For the 'Rat' ANBU's pair, they took a right turn and proceed to walk cautiously. They saw several dull steel doors on both sides. A 'Boar' masked ANBU, the second in command, stated, "We should separate here and check inside each room thoroughly."

A good twenty minutes later, they couldn't find anything relevant to their objective. After coming out of a room empty handed, Rat got a little frustrated at his result. "There are nothing in here. Are we even at the right place?" asked Rat.

"Be quiet and focus, Rat! Captain is a proficient sensor with his summon tracking dogs." Replied Boar. He shook his head at his teammate's complaint.

"I know. I know. I'm just saying." Rat grumbled to himself. They continued in silence afterwards.

Just then Rat accidentally pushed a stone block while he was leaning on the wall. This opened up an entrance to another part of the hideout.

 _Woah. That was unexpected. This is like one of those detective movies-_ thought Rat. Nodding his head to Boar, he announced via his radio coms to his team. **[This is Rat. I found a small entrance the right wing. It seems to lead to another part of this building. I'm going to go check it out. Over]**

Dog received the message and replied, **[Copy. Report if you find anything. Over.].**

 **[Roger.]**

Rat went in alone, letting Boar to search more the remaining rooms. Rat walked along the passageway which had torches hanging on the wall, just like those in the hallway. He had to make a few turns before having to stop at a stair which descended further down. _This place is like a maze._ \- he mused. He saw a light at the end of the stair and another dull steel door.

 **[This is Rat. I think I'm going further down a level. There seems to be a room. I'm entering it now. Over.]**

'Rat' twisted the door knob, but before he went in, he took a peep inside that place to avoid unwanted surprise. He froze at the sight before him. The T&I department, which in his mind was one of those creepy places where you would hear ear screeching screams of the prisoners and crackles from a certain interrogator, was nothing compare to this place. It was a whole other level of creepiness. He couldn't help but exclaimed, "Holy-"

XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX

"SHIT!" yelled a young male voice. Akatsuchi was large and imposing for a 14 years old. He had dark eyes and black hair that spiked out at the back underneath his bandanna styled forehead protector. He had large cheeks and a plum nose what gave him an overall look of constant joviality. However, his current expression didn't seem like one who was usually laid back. The boy was now sweating profusely and looking frantically for something, or more like someone.

" _Where is she?! Tsuchikage-sama is going to kill me if we don't arrive on time",_ he thought with burrowed brows.

"Kurotsuchi! Kurotsuchi! Where are you?!" He was supposed to meet with his teammate 30 minutes before the time for their special training with the Tsuchikage, which was at 1o'clock in the afternoon. Now his female teammate was nowhere to be seen.

Normally, she was the first one to arrive at their designated place and waited for him. This was one of those rare occasions when she was late, but it would just be 10 minutes behind their schedule. Now it was already a quarter past one, so the old man was definitely going to be pissed. Just by thinking of it made Akatsuchi gulped loudly.

He had gone to the places that Kurotsuchi liked to go for lunch or relaxed at, but he still couldn't find her. He decided to inform the Tsuchikage about her disappearance as she was his grand-daughter, so he had to know about this. This was going to be worse!

xxxxxxxxxx

Arriving at the training ground that had multiple rock formations littering the plain land, which was the result of various hardcore training using Earth release technique, Akatsuchi prepared himself for a rant from his tutor.

Floating in the air at the middle of the training ground was an old man with his green and yellow coat with a red collar occasionally blowing with the wind. For people who did not know this man, it would be a shocking phenomenon to see a man was defying gravity of the earth. For those who knew him, they could feel the commanding aura emitting from just his presence alone demanded respect and obedience of his subordinates. He was Ohnoki Kamizuru, widely known as Ohnoki of Both Scales or among his generation as Ohnoki the Fence-Sitter. Ohnoki was the current Third Tsuchikage of the Hidden in Stone village. Ōnoki is a very short, old man with a triangular beard and a moustache that has angular corners, a big red nose and thick eyebrows. The top of his head is completely bald, although, he has long white hair on the lower-half of his head which is styled in a traditional 'chonmage' haircut, the back of which is tied with a yellow ribbon into a topknot.

His face now adorned a deep frown, in which because of the tardiness of his supposed students. He had wasted his time to try to improve the young generations, so that they could succeed him. That was why he didn't tolerate laziness. Plus, his back wasn't doing any good at the moment.

"What's the meaning of this, Akatsuchi? Why are you so late? And where is the brat?", asked the floating leader.

"My apologies, Tsuchikage-sama. But I couldn't find Kurotsuchi anywhere. He flinched at the glare of the man before him despite their massive difference of size.

"What do you mean you couldn't find her? Wasn't she with you during lunch break?" Ohnoki asked with narrowed eyes.

"No, sir. She told me she wanted to train some more and she brought her own bento, so I went to grab my lunch alone. When I came back, she was gone. I tried to look for her at her favorite places, but there was no trace of her."

" _This is getting more and more suspicious the more I think about it. There had been several cases of the disappearances of both civilians and ninja. Could it be?!"_ Ohnoki thought with his eyes wide opened. "ANBU! Go and find my grand-daughter!" commanded the Tsuchikage.

Suddenly, four masked ninja, with the standard Iwa-nin uniforms added with their black animals masked, jumped out from underneath the ground and knelt before him. "At once, sir!" They left after that.

"You go and continue searching for her. Our session today is dismissed." Instructed Ohnoki.

"Hai, Tsuchikage-sama."

Ohnoki was left alone at the training ground and was contemplating about something. "Please let it not be what I suspected." He muttered to himself before retiring back to his office for the remaining day. He could do nothing now, but to wait for further information.

xxxxxxxxxx (Three hours later)

The third Earth-shadow was approving a file about a request for additional fund for the upgrade of the standard of ninja training at the academy. Iwagakure no Sato was at the final stage of revitalizing back their military prowess after their humiliating defeat at the hand of Konohagakure during the third ninja world war. A thousand ninja were decimated by a man with a single jutsu. This feat was almost impossible to achieve, but a certain blonde ninja of the Leaf proved otherwise. It obviously wounded the pride and power of the Hidden Stone village in the ninja world.

This was what war was all about. And Ohnoki knew it really well as he had gone through all the previous three wars. Death and destruction was guaranteed to happen. The ones who started it had to face whatever result was produced afterwards. Consequently, the cycle of pain and vengeance was created and never ended. It seemed that there was no chance for peace to erupt in this world.

Ohnoki was broken out of his stupor by the arrival of his ANBU agents. "Tsuchikage-sama, we could not locate Kurotsuchi-sama anywhere inside the village. Even with our sensors, her chakra trace was completely gone." Reported the ANBU. "We deduced that she must be-"

"Outside the village, either by choice or by force. It seemed that she's been kidnapped, like I suspected." Ohnoki grimaced at the fate of his grand-daughter. He believed in Kurotsuchi to protect herself though, at least until he could send help for her.

"Sir, what is your order?" the ANBU sounded determined to find their Stone princess.

"We can't let the public knows this. Take six squads and retrieve her. Don't come back without her." Ordered the old leader.

"Hai!" with that the ANBU left to gather his teams and started the mission.

Ohnoki of Both Scales was fuming on the inside. He had an idea of who the culprit is. _"How dare that bastard!"_ He was too arrogant to think that the snake bastard wouldn't play with his village. Now he suffered the consequence of letting Orochimaru ran around Earth country. Ohnoki swore to condemn the bastard that dared to harm his grand-daughter.

XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX

Unexpectedly, the room was a really big one with light bulbs hanging down from the ceiling, providing enough light to walk in safely. The first thing that caught his attention was that there were maybe fifty big collecting flasks on shelves on the wall. What were inside those flasks was a disgusting sight. Several body parts or organs, like eyes, arms, etc, were in those water-filled containers. He felt sick just by seeing it. _–They always said he was damn creepy, but this is just too much_ _-_ he thought while continuing to check on anything that may lead to Orochimaru's whereabouts. Walking further inside, he saw a table with a white cloth covering it like those ones in surgery room. The cloth was blood stained and it seemed to be freshly used too. There was also a board with some hand-writing on it. Rat took a look at it.

It said, "Affiliation: Iwagakure. Rank: Chuunin. Age:16 Female. Specialty: Explosion release. Duration of captivity: 1 week."

"He's been kidnapping people all over the place. This must be another hideout for experiments." said to himself before deciding to survey the room more. To his right, there was a giant computer attached to the wall, filled with some kind of DNA related information on its screen. And to the opposite of it were all types of tools that surgeons would use for their operations. 'Rat' began to feel unnerved about this whole thing.

The hair on his neck rose up slowly as an aura of dark and evil came from a cell in the left end corner of the room. It was dark inside there. One of his hands reached for his sickle on his back, while the other hand tried to push the cell opened when he got in front of it.

A squeaking sound of the opening cell echoed around the area. 'Rat' took a step in as both his hands were fully equipped with his two razor sharp sickles. What he saw there shocked him to the core. Lying down on the floor was a young girl. She looked to be around his age and had short black hair. Her clothes were still intact, but she had ninja wires tied around both of her hands and her feet.

He knelt down in front of her. His eyes carefully studied her sleeping form, "What happened to her?" He shook her shoulders a little bit before she started to squirm in pain. "Hey. Wake up."

The girl groggily opened her eyes. All she could see at first was a blur of a white and red mask close to her face. She then was fully awaked and crawled away from the figure in front of her. "N-no! Stay away from me!" yelled the girl.

"Hey hey. It's ok. I'm not hurting you." said the ANBU as he sheathed his weapons back on his back and raised his hands up. He walked closer to her slowly, trying to show that he meant no harm. Now that he could see her whole features, she has short black hair and a pair of rosy eyes. " _What a strange eyes' color"._ Those were bruises on her right cheek, signaling there was retaliation done by her. _"Oh, she's a ninja too."_ She adorned the standard attire of the Iwa-nin consisting of a red uniform with her right sleeve missing and a lapel over her right leg, the brown Iwagakure flak jacket which was torn at the abdomen part, fishnet tights and a skirt over them. She also wore regular shinobi sandals.

"No! Don't get any closer!" She still didn't trust the person in front of her. What she had seen a hour ago of what a man did to a fellow prisoner scared the living hell out of her. She crawled back further away from him.

 _She's having a trauma. It must've been bad.-_ 'Rat' thought of the situation. He just stopped at a good distance where she told him to, not wanting to push his luck. "What happened to you? I can help you." the masked ninja tried to comfort the girl after seeing how scared she was of him.

The girl lowered her guard a little bit as she could see he indeed wasn't going to hurt her. "That man killed her. H-he cut her s-stomach open. There was b-blood everywhere!" she stuttered while trying to explain. She was shaking tremendously though. The scene had been haunting her for days and nights.

'Rat' saw the girl was shuddering with fear. He felt sad to see someone this young witnessing whatever that happened here that must have been a very terrifying sight. He himself wouldn't want to experience whatever she'd seen either even if he was an ANBU. "I'm sorry. It's okay, I'm getting you out of here. You'll be safe." hugging the girl and rubbing her back to ease her pain.

She hugged back and clutched her source of comfort. Her shaking was somehow stopping after a few minute. Rat contemplated a bit before asking to confirm his thought. "You are a ninja, yes?"

"Yes. I was kidnapped by a man. His face was so pale, even paler than sick people. He did something to me which make me unable to mold my chakra. I don't know what it was, but he hit me in the stomach with all five of his fingers." Explained the girl.

"I see. Can you show it to me? Maybe I can fix it."

She stiffened and had pink hue on her cheeks. "S-show you?" she asked hesitantly.

"Yeah, I need to see what it is. I know it must be some kind of chakra restricting seal." Rat seemed a bit flustered also at the concept of asking the girl to show him her stomach blatantly.

She then lifted up her red shirt and looked away. Rat immediately checked out the problem, so that he could end her embarrassment. Rat quickly identified the seal that disturbed the chakra flow. It was the **'** **Gogyo Fuuin' (The five elements seal)**. Its ability was to block the flow of the target's chakra which prevented them to use or even control their own chakra properly. Once it was completed, the target would become unconscious and unable to fight for a short time. Apparently, Orochimaru used that opportunity to capture her with ease. In order to counter it, or more specifically cancel it, Rat needed to use the seal's counterpart called **'Gogyo Kaiin' (The five elements unseal)** which basically reverse the effect of the original seal.

"Alright, what I'm about to do is going to hurt you a bit, so bear with me. After that, you will most likely fall unconscious from the sudden rush of the flow of your chakra." Rat explained.

"Um, that doesn't sound pretty at all."

"No, it doesn't. So do you trust me?"

" _I don't really have any other option if I want to leave this place. He also seems confident about this._ " Thought the girl. She nodded and prepared herself for the coming pain.

Rat ran through a set of hand seals necessary for his intended technique. Just then, on his right hand, his fingers began to glow blue fire-like hue with letters represented all five elements. With the technique ready to perform, he positioned his hand on her stomach and alerted the girl, "Alright, here goes! **'Sealing arts: Five elements Unseal!'** ".

She suddenly gasped for air from the strong pulse of power by the seal. All she could feel at the moment was pain, starting from her coil spreading throughout her chakra system in her body. A couple minutes later, the pain died down a peg, then a feeling of relief overcame the rush of her chakra flow. She felt like a ton of weight was lifted from her shoulders. Her lips curved upwards when she looked at the relaxed manner of her savior as his shoulders were slumped down. This could go south just by a small error from him.

"Rest for now. I will get you out of here", muttered softly at her, Rat picked the girl up bridal style while she began to succumb to her needed rest. She snuggled into his chest adorably, making smile at the scene. He found it incredibly cute. " _Oh no! Bad Naruto. Bad Naruto._ " He shook off the thought from his mind immediately. With a blush on his face behind his mask, he looked at her face one more time before making their way out of this despicable place.

"Sleep tight, Kurotsuchi."

* * *

Author's note: Hey, guys. During these past weeks, I've been reviewing my previous story and I feel like it followed all the events in the canon too closely. So I want to do something different and cool, like creating my own scenario for the story. I hope you enjoy this one. Feel free to share what you think of this. just don't randomly flame. It helps me to improve my English, as well as my story telling. Thanks. I'll see you guys next time.

P.S.: I will not continue my previous story. Think of this new one as a remake.


	2. Chapter 2

***Note: I already corrected my mistake of the wrong usage of Naruto's codename. It should be 'Rat', not 'Fox'. My apology. Enjoy* 21/07/16**

* * *

Ninja, the warriors of the night, were a powerful force to be reckoned with even before the creation of the Ninshu. They specialized in infiltration, espionage, assassination etc. Ninja operated and completed their assigned missions in the shadow. This made them exceptionally dangerous as they would have already accomplished their objectives before anyone realized what happened.

The 'Nindo' is equivalent to the Samurai code of conduct. The ninja must stick to their rules and finish their missions no matter of consequences. They must do what is necessary to their goals; to kill or be killed.

Later on, with the addition of the Ninshu and the usage of Chakra to their arsenals, Ninja's power had increased substantially and practically dominated the whole military aspect. They became the apex predators with the help of their increase in strength and the cunning nature of their mind, even bested the 'honorable' Samurai who lived by their oath and loyalty to their lords.

Afterwards, many major ninja clans, with their force of hundreds strong and mighty leaders, started displaying their superiority over those of weaker and smaller clans. The strong proceeded to conquer the weak and unified them under their rules. In which resulted in the creation of ninja villages.

Five villages that stood out the most were considered to be the 'Great Five' and gained fearsome reputations. Foreseeing the chance to increase their political prowess and exert control over other countries, the Daimyos of the countries ,where the 'Great Five' were located in respectively, decided to support those villages by providing both supplies and fund for those ninja and asked in return for the safety of their families and border.

Now that the Ninja became the primary military force and the neutral stance the Samurai had now proclaimed, the 'code of conduct' of the chakra using warriors began to evolve. They were given the alias as the protectors of their respective villages.

However, the seed of greed within the hearts of men grew as well. To those power obsessed leaders, the depth of their desire was unsurmountable. They wanted more. Even after of the dividend of the tailed beasts between the great five ninja villages during the first 'Kage Submit', it was still not enough to satisfy their hunger for power. That led to the practice of honing the beasts' power. Through many theories and experiments, 'Jinchuriki' was eventually made. Sealing the beasts inside the human bodies in order to learn how to control their power was the sign showing that human were greedy and desperate. They wanted to best each other and showcased that their village was stronger and mightier than one another.

Moreover, the differences of the Kages were too great that they wouldn't give even a thought of forming alliances and seek for peace. When one was becoming too strong, its rivals would make plans to bring it down. Small conflicts led to big confrontations. Inevitably, wars were erupted once again between the nations. Obviously, no one could escape the grasp of death during battles. "For the sake of our village. For the sake of our country" they said. It was just a cover up after all. They wanted to expend their power even if their people had to be the ones to sacrifice their lives.

Had they not wage wars against one another, all the death and destruction would not have happened. Children would not have to become the victim. They would not have to live as orphans and bear hatred within their hearts. Vengeance would not have to exist at all.

Wars only brought the darkness from the deep of the hearts of men. Wars only brought tears in the eyes of the families of those who died. It took away husbands, wives, parents and even children. Hope was crashed; peace was broken. The happiness of families living together was forever gone within a matter of days. People lived in fear; fear that one day their parents or children would have to fight for their lives with minimal chance of returning home.

Those who survived did not fare well either. Some even lost hope to continue living. They were broken on the inside because seeing the ones they loved dearly died or being slaughtered before their eyes was too much. Ending their career as ninjas might save what was left of their humanities. They wanted nothing but to live the remaining of their lives in isolation.

In some cases, the veterans lost their mind and their personalities changed. They became more ruthless and behave strangely. Some even defected their village in order to seek revenge for their loss, even if they were announced as 'Rogued-Ninja'.

Some believed they could escape death through immortality, which sounded utterly impossible and horrific. However, to a certain ninja, impossible had never been in his vocabulary. Getting fed up with several deaths of the people around him, Orochimaru decided that he would not want to die like the way the deceased did. Hell, he would not even want to die at all. His ultimate goal was to learn every jutsu in the world and understand the meaning of life and death. Thus, having his life ended with his goal unfulfilled didn't suffice his ambition.

The former Jounin of Konohagakure and the candidate for the seat of the Fourth Hokage defected his home village shortly after the end of the third ninja war. His thirst for knowledge and fear of death transformed him into a criminal who broke the laws and conducted several illegal experiments on humans; both civilians and ninja alike were the guinea pigs of his cruel obsession. Eventually, the Third Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen, caught the Sannin red-handed in his personal laboratory. Surprisingly due to the sentiments that Hiruzen held between the teacher and the student, Orochimaru was led free to flee from his crime. He had built many hideouts throughout the elemental nations later after his defection. After many fail tests and theories, he finally was a step closer to achieve his goal. The feat was almost impossible to do, let alone imagine of even performing, but it did not stop him. By transferring his soul into another body, he could practically live forever. Even so, he had to change a new host every three years.

Apparently so, not just any bodies were to be chosen by him. Only bodies of those ninja with special abilities or who were of high caliber would meet his criteria. He was one of the legendary three ninja after all. Only the best would suit his reputation, or so he thought.

Therefore, the moment he witnessed one masked ninja, whom he identified as a Konoha ANBU, could actually counter his seal, a powerful one to be honest, and managed to rescue his prisoner struck him as an interesting subject for a very likely experiment.

Oh, the anticipation!

His lackeys would be enough to keep his guest's friends busy while he continued to see if the boy had any more surprises.

 _Kukukukuku, you are one interesting fella. Let's see if you survive this._ With a sickening grin on his face, Orochimaru remained hidden within the wall of his lab.

* * *

It had been half an hour since they started searching in every rooms there were in the left wing of this hideout. 'Dog' and 'Cat' still had yet to find anything concrete about their target. Right when they were about to head back to their rendezvous, something flew at a really fast speed in their direction. The two ninja jumped back to dodge the projectile and stood back to back facing either directions of the hall to try to locate the enemy. The dimming light in the hallway was blocking their line of sight unfortunately.

'Cat' focused her sensory ability and caught two presences that were currently blocking their escape route. "Captain, there are two chakra signatures coming from both directions. One at 10 meters from your side and one at 15 meters from mine." Said 'Cat'. 'Dog' nodded in acknowledgement.

"Ho, seems like we have a sensor here. I'm sure Orochimaru-sama would find you interesting for his experiments." Said the one mysterious enemy from Dog's side. He then walked out from the shadow, revealing his feature. With ash grey hair tied into a ponytail and onyx eyes covered by black rimmed circular glasses, he wore a high collared, dark purple shirt, and white under-shirt, and dark purple pants with a white cloth tied around his waist.

Then another figure appeared at his opposite end. The figure had a waist length, grey hair with a pale skin complexion which made his vivid green eyes stood out brightly. His uniform was consisted of a lavender loose fitting, long-sleeves, zip-up shirt and black pants that was cut off around his mid-calf. He also had bandages wrapped around his waist, finished with a pair of traditional ninja boots.

After noticing two scarlet dots on the figure's forehead, 'Cat' immediately recognized the man as a member from one of the famous but already extinct ninja clans. "You are from the Kaguya clan, I assume." The female ninja claimed.

The figure nodded and said, "You are correct. I am the last of my clan."

'Cat' narrowed her eyes and tensed up her body, preparing for an incoming battle. Obviously, the Kaguya clan's prestige was well-known not only among the ninja who specialized in Kenjutsu, but also throughout the elemental nations. Of course, not all members were trained at arms, but those few warriors were beasts in sword fights and their reputation were widely feared because of their secret techniques, unique body structure and bloodthirsty nature.

"The Kaguya was reknowned for their ability to manipulate their skeletal structure to convert their bones into weapons. It was so powerful and regarded as the ultimate tai-kenjutsu ability." Said 'Cat'. "So I'm better suited in combating him, captain."

The Captain seemed to be on the same page with his squad member. As Kenjutsu was her primary fighting style, 'Cat' was perfect for this type of battle. Plus, his Sharingan could serve to analyze what their other enemy's abilities were. "Good assessment. Be careful. I wouldn't want to lose a good comrade… and friend." The female ANBU was slightly surprised but quickly regain her focus.

"Remember, Kimimaro-kun. You are doing this for Orochimaru-sama. You don't want to disappoint him, do you?" said the glasses wearing figure. He used the loyalty card as the catalyst to spur up the last Kaguya warrior's ferocity. As he expected, Kimimaro grunted at the statement and took off for his fight.

With that, 'Cat' pulled out her sword and charged at her opponent.

Kabuto glanced at the remaining ANBU agent and pushed up his glasses with his right hand's middle finger. "Well then, shall we start, Captain?" he asked with a condescending tone. This didn't seem to irk 'Dog' one bit though. He frowned at the reaction, or lack thereof. The masked ninja lived up to his name as the infamous mentally strong warrior. _Oh well, I'll just make do with what I have._

" **Chakra Scalpel " **With his jutsu activated, Kabuto initiated the battle, with the confidence of defeating his adversary, or so he thought.

* * *

Meanwhile, Naruto had been walking for a long while now and had yet to reenter the hallway he was in with his second-in-command. "I don't think I took that long to get to the room." Naruto muttered to himself irritably. Having to piggy back a passed out girl and getting lost in a creepy place like this was tilting his mood so hard. After a few more turns, he finally saw the light, likely the exit he was desperately longing for.

However, luck wasn't on his side this time as the first thing he saw was definitely not something he wanted to deal at the moment. Apparently, the ANBU agent just ended up in another unidentified room. It was many times bigger than the lab where he found Kurotsuchi. Naruto walked forward in a defensive stance, glancing left and right for any possible threats. Flanking them were dozens of giant containers filled with strangely green water, but fortunately there were no bodies in there, unlike he expected. The light was dimly provided, so he could not see anything beyond the containers. Deciding it was safe enough to take a short break, he placed Kurotsuchi down on the ground and took out his communication device.

" **This is Rat to Boar. Do you copy?"** said Naruto through the com, likely to inform his comrade about the delay of his arrival. All he received was a static, however. He decided to call again. **"This is Rat. Are you there, Boar?"** And again no answer from his comrade. This was making him worried. Something must be going on in the hall. Then suddenly a glass breaking sound broke him out of his stupor. He reacted quickly by pulling a kunai and stood on guard. Looking around, he saw one of the containers was broken by an unknown force. The room turned deadly quiet with only the sound of water streaming out of its container. - _Something broke out! I thought there were nothing in there!-_

Noticing the situation turned sour, he picked up Kurotsuchi and was about to leave when a snake jumped out from the shadow intending to bite him. He evaded to the right before pulling out a shuriken and threw it at the snake. It sneered loudly and died. Not long before a giant figure crashed into the ground where Naruto was standing. Luckily he sensed it beforehand and escaped to safety. The vision of the appearing danger was hidden by dust kicking up. A few second later, the sight was clear and Naruto could see that the figure was nothing he had ever seen before. His eyes were wide open and his body froze with the sight before him. It would deniably cause nightmares.

It was a giant white snake formed by thousands of small snakes. A very unlikely thing to exist. Its eyes were yellow with slit pupils. A mutated human face with a pointed chin and razor sharp fangs gave a menacing look. That was most likely one of Orochimaru's experiments; a human-snake hybrid.

"What the hell is that thing?!" the blond ANBU exclaimed out loud. The giant snake heard the voice and found its target's location. It then jumped at Naruto with its fangs protruding out. The ANBU threw a kunai towards the abomination and was shocked as multiple small snakes peeled out of the giant creating a hole to let the kunai passed through harmlessly. Naruto flickered away quickly seeing that his attack failed. The white snake pivoted its body after landing at the spot and jumped again at the blond. Naruto created a clone and handed Kurotsuchi to it to get away while he let the snake in another direction.

This continued on for a couple more times with the giant white snake chasing Naruto around, destroying everything in its path. Finally, the ANBU decided to take a risk and tried hitting the snake with a direct cut from his blades. He pulled out his twin Kama, enhancing them with Wind chakra for more cutting potential and waited for his enemy to get close. He lowered his stance and was patiently calculating the distance. When the snake got in close enough, he dodged to its left and swung his blades down on its neck, decapitating its head cleanly. It curled its body around, sprouting blood everywhere.

"Huh? That was easy." Said Naruto, looking at the result of his attack. With its menacing appearance, he expected a harder fight. He turned around and flickered towards his clone. While the blond was busy fighting, his clone was trying to locate an exit and found a metal door by the time the fight was finished. He exchanged nods with his clone, but was pushed hard to the side by said clone.

"What the fuck!" he bounced off the ground and looked up to see the giant white snake was alive and had swallowed his clone and the passed out girl too.

"Kurotsuchi!" yelled out the blond. He quickly performed a series of hand seals with fury fire in his azure blue eyes.

" **Wind release: Decapitator!" ** Wind chakra began to cover his right hand forming a deadly sharp wind blade. Naruto rushed forward and swung his hand horizontally at the snake, bisecting it and rescuing Kurotsuchi out from its stomach. He put her on his back and went through another series of hand seals before yelling out his next jutsu.

" **Fire release: Great Fireball!" ** A giant fireball flew at the once-again headless snake and burned its whole body away, securing its death this time.

With the danger gone, Naruto slumped down on the ground with Kurotsuchi on his lap. He took a couple of deep breath and steadied himself. The girl's eyes slowly fluttered open and was met with a sight of a white mask with a rat like feature. She noticed he had blond spikey hair and wore a short sleeved ANBU style shirt and grey armor. Kurotsuchi stiffened her body. She'd never seen that ANBU before. Iwa ANBU's mask was of dark red color, not white. Then her memory came back. Her body relaxed after recognizing the ninja that saved her.

"Where are we? Are we out yet?" asked the pink eyed kunoichi. She sat up and looked at her surroundings. She noticed the massive size of the place and a pool of blood meters away from her.

"Not yet. I think we are lost in here." Replied the blond with his strength gained back. He stood up and gave his hands for the girl to help her stand up.

"So what do we do now?" asked Kurotsuchi. She really wanted to get out of this place immediately. The horror she had witnessed was still freshly stained in her mind.

"I guess we can try the door my clone found a moment ago. Staying here is definitely not a good idea. I lost my communication with my team. We are going in blind now." Said Naruto after readying his gears for travel and combat. Kurotsuchi sighed disappointedly. She tried to gather her chakra to form a jutsu, but found it quite hard to do so. "Don't bother trying. Your chakra network is a mess right now. The seal disrupted your coil pretty badly. You might want to redo your control exercises to get it back to its former state when you are out of here." Informed the blond.

"Assuming we can get out." Kurotsuchi muttered softly.

"We will get out! Don't lose hope just yet." Shot back Naruto. The girl was silent for a moment. "Trust me." He added with a smile behind his mask toward her. Of course she could not see it but his tone of voice made her pink eyes widened a bit. She was surprised by the determination behind his words. Kurotsuchi nodded afterwards and stood firmer, somehow felt safer now. The boy seemed to have a warm aura emitting out which soothed her anxiety. He didn't look that older than her, with only two inches in height difference. His build was of a lean type and decently ripped muscles. With sickles as his weapon, his physique fitted to the agile fighting style.

"Let's go." Said the blond ANBU. He walked toward the metal door with Kurotsuchi following behind closely. His left hand on the door knob and his right on his blade, Naruto opened the door and entered the passageway, hoping to find the exit of this abysmal place.

* * *

While the three members of the assigned ANBU team were having their battles, the lone Boar masked ninja was doing his job at searching the rooms for any information about his target. He entered yet again another room without finding anything significant. Having only a bed and a plain wall design, the room was befitting to those of a prison.

"What is taking him so long?" asked 'Boar' himself. 'Rat' had entered the secret passage for a while now and hadn't come back yet. They were operating on the enemy's territory, so they could not afford to stay too long.

Then suddenly, his communicating device elicited the voice of his comrade.

-" **This is Rat to Boar. Do you copy?"-**

However, Boar never got to reply as his vision turned black and his consciousness lost by a hit to his head. Boar fell on the ground while his device alerted again.

- **"This is Rat. Are you there, Boar?"-**

A blur sight of four figures was seen camouflaging with the shadow in the room. "Looks like there are pests lurking around our place. Let's go tell Orochimaru-sama." Said one of the four figures.

* * *

 **A/N:** I apologize for the very late update of the story. I know it sounds lame, but a lot really happened lately in my life, so I kind of drifted apart from my story. Now that the second chapter arrived, I hope it is satisfying enough. I will try my best to write more and hopefully finish this piece. Have a good day!


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